That’s what the state’s tourism magazine claims in an October cover story that takes on the apex of Vermont’s natural beauty, the reds, oranges and yellows of its spectacular fall foliage season. The headline reads, “Autumn in Arizona and why it’s better than it is in Vermont.”

“Those are fighting words,” said a chuckling Burr Morse, the proprietor of the Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks just outside Montpelier. His 40-year-old family business gets about a third of its revenue during the foliage season.

Arizona Highway editor Robert Stieve said the story was designed to draw attention and dispel some of the stereotypes that Arizona is all desert and rattlesnakes.

Attention it did draw. Vermont Life created a mock cover that claimed that a local attraction, the Quechee Gorge, is greater than the Grand Canyon.

Stieve acknowledged that Arizona’s offerings probably don’t compare to Vermont, which he called the “gold standard for fall leaves.”